Computer technician Sze Ho-chun and his mother wearing masks walk out of the court in Hong Kong yesterday. Sze pleaded not guilty in the court to illegally copying and distributing more than 1,000 photos of Edison Chen performing sex acts with a string of starlets. AFP

HONG KONG: A computer technician, accused of accessing the private, intimate photos of entertainer Edison Chen and distributing them on the Internet, has pleaded not guilty to three counts of obtaining access to a computer with a view to dishonest gain for himself.

Dicky Sze Ho-chun, 24, is alleged by prosecutors to have copied from a server thousands of images of Canto pop star Edison Chen Koon-hei engaged in sexual acts with actresses and celebrities including Gillian Chung, Cecilia Cheung, Bobo Chan and Rachel Ngan.

Prosecutor Hayson Tse said that Sze's colleague named Tse saved the computer data from Chen's laptop on an external hard disk drive as backup when Chen took his machine to Elite Multimedia Limited for repair between 2005 and 2006.

Sze allegedly copied the photos from the hardrive to a computer server connected to the Internet.

The lewd images became widely circulated on the Web in late January, 2008. Sze was arrested on February 2 for distributing obscene articles but denied the charge.

"I didn't distribute the celebrity nude photos but I know my colleague repaired Chen's computer around October 2006," Sze was quoted as saying.

However, 11 of the photos were recovered from Sze's personal computer last year.

Tse added Sze had shown the images to two employees at a household store, which employed Elite Multimedia to service its computer.

The two females, Fanny Choi and Janet Leung, were quoted by prosecutors as saying Sze told them how he accessed the images. The women said Sze then handed them a compact-disc, containing 1,300 erotic pictures.

Choi and Leung will be called to testify today.

Chief Magistrate Tong Man also heard Chen's deposition, taken in Canada, in February.

Chen had declined to appear in a Hong Kong courtroom saying he feared for his safety if he came to the SAR.

Chen stressed in his deposition he was the sole user of all four computers involved in the case. He said he had not disclosed the passwords to those computers to anyone.

Only he and the women shown in the photos had seen pictures, which had been deleted from the digital cameras with which they were taken after Chen uploaded them to computers. None of the four women received copies.

Chen said either he or his driver would remain present when the machines were taken for maintenance and he never left the machines in the shop overnight with one exception.

Chen said he believed the pictures were stolen during a repair in 2006.

"They invaded my privacy and stole my things in a very direct way," he said.

The sex photo scandal smashed Chen's entertainment career in Hong Kong. He announced an early retirement from the local industry last year.

Sze, who doesn't have criminal record, is on bail. If convicted, he could spend up to five years in jai. The trial at Kowloon City Magistracy will continue today. Sixteen witnesses have been called. The trial is expected to last for ten days.

(HK Edition 04/07/2009 page1)